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Villages, towns and cities[edit]
Villages, towns and cities[edit] Some town plans recommended in the 700 CE Manasara Sanskrit text on Hindu architecture.

Hindu texts recommend architectural guidelines for homes, market places, gardens and town planning. The best site for human settlement, declares Manasara, seeks the right terrain with thick soil that slopes to open skies eastward so that the residents can appreciate the sunrise. It is near a river or significant water stream, and has enough ground water for wells – a second source of water. The soil, states Manasara, should be firm, rich for growing flowers, vegetables and fruit trees, and of agreeable odor. The text recommends that the town planners dig and check the soil quality for a stable foundation to homes and public buildings. Once the location is accepted, the text describes forty plans for laying out the streets, the homes, markets, gardens and other infrastructure necessary for the settlement. Example architectural plans include Dandaka, Prastara, Chaturmukha, Padmaka, Karmuka, Swastika and others. The Hindu texts vary, with five shared principles:


 * Diknirnaya: principles of orientation
 * Padavinyasa : site planning
 * Hastalakshana : proportionate measurement ratios of sections
 * Ayadi : six canonical principles of architecture
 * Patakadi : aesthetics or character of each building or part of the overall plan

The guidelines combine principles of early Hindu understanding of science, spiritual beliefs, astrology and astronomy. In practice, these guidelines favor symmetry set to the cardinal directions, with many plans favoring the streets to be aligned with seasonal winds direction, integrated with the terrain and the needs of the local weather. A temple or public assembly hall at the center of the town is recommended in Manasara.

Landscape
Hindu architecture reflects the importance of the divine and cosmos in not only the creation of temples and buildings, but also within the landscape surrounding these structures and the makeup of many cities themselves as they lead followers through a pilgrimage of spiritual awakening. They speak of different traditions, such as the Vedic tales and manuals, whose principles aide in guiding the formation and creation of temples and the surrounding natural landscape to best achieve the earthly link to the divine through geometries, patterns, and numbers. For example, the grids of many Hindu cities are planned based upon guidance from the Vedic manuals, while others use the mandala as a foundation. But it is not just about the patterns that one can see visually, but also about the physical patterns that one endures on their journey to or experience within the architecture, such as the circumambulatory nature of many Hindu pilgrimages and temples like the panchkroshī pilgrimage.

Temples (mandirs)[edit]
Main article: Hindu temple architecture

The creation and design of Hindu architecture is firmly intertwined with the beliefs in which Hinduism grounds itself, which is that that life does not exist without connection to divine potential as life is viewed as a never-ending series of a continuous cycle of the universe being created and destroyed. Hindu temples therefore tend to lie at the heart of Hindu architecture (see Hindu Temple Architecture) as they are often viewed as a direct link between the gods and man, which is essential connection in the Hindu culture. Temples also aid the spiritual transformation of those who come to experience them as they hold and embody many elements of Hindu architecture that mirror the cosmos.

Temples are a way to formulate and represent the divine in a way that can be easily understood and perceived by the human scale. Similarly to their surrounding landscapes, temples are able to achieve this intimate connection through patterns, geometries such as, a circle to represent the earth or a square to symbolize the heavens, numbers that reflect equivalence to a greater meaning, like 108, which is the distance from the earth to the sun, or 360, that hold a significant meaning whether it be in the Hindu religion, in relation to the cosmos, or to daily life. For example, many of the numbers found in temples hold an astronomical basis that trace back to either the solar or lunar year to aid in deepening the connection to the cosmos. The use of geometries also assist in creating a sense of scale for the observer with its progression from large to smaller details. As a result, these different characteristics allow for representation of values and symbolism that are vital to the spirit and essence of Hindu temples. In addition, many of the geometries and patterns that found in the temples are often duplicated and found elsewhere, whether it be somewhere else within the architecture or reflected within the surrounding landscape.

Layout
Hindu temple architecture has many varieties of style whose historic role has been to provide "a focus for both the social and spiritual life" for the Hindu community it serves, states George Michell. Every Hindu temple ("mandir") is imbued with symbolism, yet the basic structure of each stays the same. Each temple has an inner sanctum or the sacred space, the garbha griha or womb-chamber, where the primary murti or the image of a deity is housed in a simple bare cell for darshana (view, meditative focus). Above the garbhagriha is a tower-like shikhara, called the vimana in south India. This sanctum is surrounded by a closed or open path for pradakshina (also called parikrama, circumambulation) that is typically intricately carved with symbolic art depicting Hindu legends, themes of artha, dharma and kama as well as the statues of significant deities of three major Hindu traditions (Vishnu, Shiva and Shakti).

The sanctums of significant temples have a mandapa congregation hall, and sometimes an antarala antechamber and porch between garbhagriha and mandapa. Major temples that attract pilgrims from far typically have mandapas or other buildings that service the pilgrims. These may be connected or detached from the temple. The main temple may exist with other smaller temples or shrines in the temple compound. The streets around the temple are markets and hubs of economic activity. There are examples of special dance pavilions (Nata Mandir), like in the Konark Sun Temple. The pool, temple tank (Kunda) is also part of large temples, and they traditionally have served as a place for a bath dip and ablutions for pilgrims. The same essential architectural principles are found in the historic Hindu temples of southeast Asia.